Article title: DIABETES AND HISPANIC AMERICAN WOMEN: NWHIC
Conditions: Diabetes, Type 2 diabetes
Source: NWHIC
How many
Hispanic American women have diabetes?
Are many Hispanic
American women dying from diabetes?
Why do so many
Hispanic American women have diabetes?
How does diabetes
affect Hispanic American women?
How does diabetes
affect Hispanic American women during pregnancy?
How can Hispanic
American women manage diabetes?
Type 2 diabetes is a serious health concern for Hispanic American women. One-quarter or 25 percent of Hispanic American women have been diagnosed with diabetes. Within the Hispanic American population, diabetes is more prevalent in women than it is in men. The following chart details the percentage of diabetes in Hispanic American women compared to men.
About 33.3 percent of deaths among Hispanic American women list diabetes as the underlying cause. This rate has risen rapidly in the 30-year period from 1958 to 1987: 15.7 to 33.3 percent in New Mexico. And this rate does not include diabetes as a secondary cause of death, such when death is due to a stroke caused by the diabetes.
The incidence rates are higher in Hispanic American women than in non-Hispanic white women because Hispanics have more risk factors for diabetes. The first cause is genetics, which means that the disease tends to reoccur in the same population as people marry and have children within that population. Following that logic, Mexican Americans with parents who have diabetes are twice as likely to develop the disease.
Another major risk factor is obesity. Forty-seven percent of Mexican American women are overweight, compared with only 33 percent of non-Hispanic white women. Impaired glucose tolerance has also been seen in 19 percent of Mexican Americans compared with only 15 percent in non-Hispanic whites. Insulin resistance levels were also higher in Mexican Americans.
Hispanic Americans are at higher risk for retinopathy (eye disease) and kidney disease (including end-stage kidney failure), but have lower rates of heart disease due to diabetes. In fact, the incidence of retinopathy is two times higher in Hispanic Americans than in non-Hispanic whites. Women also have higher complication rates: 50 percent higher than men for diabetic ketoacidosis (also called diabetic coma). Hispanic American women with diabetes are 7.6 times more likely to develop peripheral vascular disease (problems with blood flow in the veins) than non-diabetic women, and three-to-four times more likely to have heart disease or a stroke.
Pregnant Hispanic American women with type 2 diabetes are at an increased risk of having babies with birth defects and are at risk of developing toxemia, a condition that endangers the lives of both the mother and the infant.
About 2 to 5 percent of all pregnant women develop gestational diabetes (diabetes during pregnancy). Mexican American women, especially when they are overweight, have higher rates of gestational diabetes than non-Hispanic white women. Gestational diabetes increases the baby's risk for problems such as macrosomia (large body size) and neonatal hypoglycemia (low blood sugar).
Although women's blood glucose levels generally return to normal after childbirth, an increased risk of developing gestational diabetes in future pregnancies remains. In addition, studies show that many women with gestational diabetes will develop type 2 diabetes later in life. Experts estimate that about half of women with gestational diabetes develop type 2 diabetes within 20 years of the pregnancy. For Mexican American women, this may be as great as 12 percent per year.9
Type 2 diabetes is usually treated with diet control, exercise, home blood glucose testing, and, in some cases, oral medication and/or insulin. Approximately 40 percent of people with type 2 diabetes require insulin injections. The most successful plan for preventing diabetes is to maintain normal blood glucose levels through exercise and a balanced, low-fat diet. Click on http://www.4woman.gov/HHS/ (For Your Heart) for healthy recipes with a Latin flavor.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
http://www.cdc.gov/
For Your Heart
National Women's Health Information Center
http://www.4woman.gov/HHS
National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases
http://www.niddk.nih.gov/
Office on Women's Health
Pick Your Path to Health
Steps you can
take to improve your health
http://www.4woman.gov/PYPTH
American Diabetes Association
http://www.diabetes.org/
All material contained in the FAQs is free of copyright restrictions, and may be copied, reproduced, or duplicated without permission of the Office on Women's Health in the Department of Health and Human Services; citation of source is appreciated.
Publication date: April 2001
» Next page: Diabetes Control and Complications Trial (DCCT): NIDDK
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